Five Times the Sullivan-Kent-Luthor Clan Was Out of Control
by legendarytobes
Summary: Follows from earlier stories "Family Traditions" and "Christmas Overloaded." Five times the kids of the Sullivan-Kent-Luthor mixed family gave their parents and others the run-around. Far future-fic and basically Clark Kent/Chloe Sullivan/Lex Luthor implied.


**I. Objection**

Conner even smirked like Lex. That was not helping. It was not helping at all to see Lex's look of "I dare you" on Conner's face. It didn't help worth a damn with Megan Morse sitting now on the sofa but holding a blanket to her chest as if that fixed things. Sure, dressing in a flash was nice, but it was too late. Clark knew exactly what his, oh Hell, now Lex and Chloe had him doing it, well his son had been doing with J'onn's adopted niece and he had no idea how to deal with that.

J'onn was going to kill him before he ever got to Conner.

The Titans didn't exist as a damn dating service.

"Excuse me?" Clark asked.

Conner shrugged and stood up, strolling over to grab a shirt to go with his boxers. Maybe Clark shouldn't have just foistered him off on Mom before letting Lex take him under his wing about three years ago. Humility was a good trait and it hadn't quite stuck in D.C. or the Luthor Penthouse.

"Clark, relax. It's fine."

"Are you...is this..." Clark sputtered, not sure why he had to be having this talk. The word "safe" should have been coming out of his mouth but he couldn't just talk about sex with Conner. It felt weird.

His kid, so-to-speak, shoved on the black t-shirts he wore for patrol and it was a deliberate move. He was testing Clark, seeing how far Clark was going to take the House of El bond staring him straight in the face.

"We do what we can. Dad figured out that-"

Clark stuck his fingers in his ears. He didn't need to know what Lex had added to latex polymers to make anything safe but at least someone had been thinking ahead. "I get it."

Conner shook his head and leaned against his dresser. That smirk was beginning to drive Clark nuts. In some contexts, ones that were never for discussion with his motley crew of kids and clones, that smirk did wild things to him. On Conner, it mostly made Clark very scared he had other, even more Luthorian plans.

"Well, if you can do it and have a fifth grader and a pre-schooler then you don't have to act like you're four about it. Yes, Megan and I have been having sex. See was that so hard to say? You think you and Chloe and Lex are so covert over here or anything..."

"No, we are just not...I cannot...my dad's advice was usually 'Don't. Just don't' and moving on from there, okay? Can't I give you a stern lecture?"

Conner snickered. "Chloe's given me wooing advice because she says Lex buys people off and it gives the wrong impression and you're just and I quote 'hopeless' and to always avoid flannel and Fisher Price wardrobe schemes as if I would. Lex was the one who fixed, ahem, our problem since I'm thinking we don't need any Kryptonian-Martians running around."

"They knew?"

"Clark, come on, how old am I?"

He frowned. "Really or chronologically?"

"The latter. Otherwise that makes Megan a pedophile."

"I heard that!" she snapped, still curled under a blanket as well as her jeans and sweater from last night. She was white skinned and red-eyed. Clark wasn't sure if that was due to being too nervous to hold her form or some kink Conner had. She'd been normal when he'd come in. "Conner, don't give Clark such a hard time. He's trying."

Conner sighed and walked over to her, sidling next to her and taking a hand in his. Those were hands, right?

That seemed to calm him. "Megan and I spend a lot of time together that happens not to involve apocalypses and supervillains. She's probably as weird as me."

Megan grinned and melted back to normal. "He wishes he were this weird. I out-lap him."

Clark chuckled. "Probably not, even then. Megan, you might need to go see your guardian. I'm going to have to call him."

Megan stood and shrugged. "It figured you'd be the kill-joy dad, Superman. Lex was accommodating but he'll probably be mad we got sloppy and now you know. Although," she added, gathering up her purse. "It is called knocking for a reason. Barging into other people's apartments is rude."

"But Conner never objected before."

Megan nodded and the kindness in her eyes wasn't unappreciated. "Maybe that's the problem." With that she surprised him by just phasing through the wall.

"They can do that?"

Conner snorted. "Dad's right, you really suck at paying attention. J'onn and Megan can do a lot of things we can't but, again, you'd have to be around more so."

"Wait are we still talking about you, sex, and apparently using the Titans to hook-up?"

"You and Chloe were on a team first, kind of. It's not like we don't end up dating each other, just look at Bruce and Diana or Dinah and Oliver or, wait, maybe don't. The point is it's not some cheap thing. It's not like every Titan hooks up or it's some orgy. Also, I'm twenty-six or I feel that way. I have a job and an alter-ego and my own apartment. Granted, it's two floors down from Lex's, but I didn't think you'd assume that was an open door policy."

"Chloe and I were friends first and it's not that. I just..."

"You'd already run away to Metropolis-don't pretend that you didn't do things there..."

Clark blushed and looked away. That wasn't really anyone's business, and he hadn't gotten that far. "I know, but you're not supposed to, well, you know."

"Have sex when you're not married? Um, Lana, Lois, Chloe when Jonathan came along...it's not like you have a leg to stand on. Technically since it's Kansas and you're also already legally married to Chloe, it's not like you and Dad..."

"But that's, you're a big brother and you should be better about these things."

Conner crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's just narrow this down. It can't be sex out of marriage because all three of you have done that and Dad famously so. It can't be that I'm 'too young' cause clone actual age so doesn't count and I'm about your age after you finished being engaged to and living with Lois. So why are you that shocked?" He narrowed his eyes at him and the grey depths there were very familiar and, again, scary. "Is it because Megan's an alien because that makes so little sense. That's so hypocritical! You and J'onn have been friends for decades."

"It's not that," Clark said a bit too quickly. It did disturb him and that was probably wrong, but at least the five of them, well, if Kara would ever come back from the year three thousand, the five of them looked human. He wasn't sure if Conner was thinking straight. "It's just...I don't know. It's like ten years ago I met you so shouldn't you stay little?"

"I file briefs every day and stop Brainiac. I think I'm not exactly Jonathan or Lily. I don't need bed time stories, Clark. I figured for you the main benefit of me was that I was already grown and Grandma Martha could take care of me or Lex eventually did or there was always Tess for me to go to. I mean, you're not a bad friend, and you did always help me with powers stuff, but you sort of just shoved me off. You can't do that and then be shocked when I have a sex life at the shocking age of almost twenty-seven."

"I...but you liked D.C. and Tess is on commlink 24/7. God, then you're like a mini-Lex."

"Well we have our suits made by the same guy. Alfredo's an artiste."

Clark blinked. He wasn't really sure what that meant. Didn't suits come from the department store? "I didn't know you missed that. I just thought...we sort of got thrown into all of this for years and Mom and Tess did a good job. I didn't think you missed me like that."

"Well it sucked that for a while you were like SuperDad with Jonathan and everyone thought he was Ollie's back then and I was basically dog food. Just, I got over it, mostly."

The death glares that Conner was sending him, made Clark feel that wasn't necessarily true.

"You really should have said something. I didn't know!"

"I just, like I said, I had Grandma and Tess and then Dad," Conner said, shrugging. My point is more that you don't get to have it both ways. It's about ten years too late to be overprotective and super hypocritical."

He frowned and started to pace a bit. If he wore a groove in the apartment's floor so be it. It wasn't like Lex couldn't pay to replace it. "I get I was irrational-"

"Now, and oddly a prude for a guy who does what you do," Conner said and some of the anger was leeched out. He was back to smirking, at least a little.

Clark stopped and quirked his head at him. "Then that whole pick one goes both ways. I wouldn't ever get comments like that from Jonathan."

"He's nine. He doesn't even know what sex is."

"Well, we don't have a farm anymore that works. It's not like I can show him the bull and the cow and explain it from there."

Conner laughed. "Seriously, your dad didn't?"

"That's a time honored Kent tradition."

He snorted. "That's...maybe I don't know what I want to be. I want you to pay more attention. I know that sounds petty and pathetic."

"It's not. I didn't even know you were jealous of Lily and Jonathan. Let's just...we can hang out more. I won't kill you for dating Megan-"

"Thanks, that's super generous."

"Well J'onn will find out some day and she's his charge so he can kill you for me."

Conner paled. "Ah, Clark, you wouldn't really leave me out to dry with that."

"Maybe."

"That's cold, not-Dad," Conner replied.

"Clark, let's stick with that. I'm okay with that, you know? It might be a joke but it just makes me feel shitty, like I'm not as good as Lex."

"Lex noticed."

"I notice. So, no, I'm not going to forbid it."

"As if you could."

Clark laughed and loomed over Conner on the sofa. "I could if I were a corporal punishment kind of guy. My point is that I'm not going to treat you like you're a kid, which, okay you're not. But I'm not going to stand in the way of inevitable consequences either. Mom was always good about that. It's a better way to learn a lesson than a platitude, trust me."

"Still, a bull and a cow, Clark? God, no wonder you were so backwards. I thought that was a joke Chloe made."

"She what?"

"I just...wow, I am just not a farm guy. Dad says that good ole Lionel just bought him a hooker at fifteen and proclaimed him a man as a favor since he was so 'deformed.' God, all Lionels are awful, aren't they?"

Clark sighed and made a note to make it up to Lex tonight. His lover had never mentioned that one. Conner wasn't wrong about any Lionel being a festering cancer. "Agreed. So, maybe we'll just spend more time together. We could do sports things? I mean, Lex only watches that stuff to humor me and Jonathan likes it but his attention wanders two or three hours into a game and-"

"Sure, I can dig that much of the Kent side. So, since I turn petri-dish style fifteen in about five years, what are you going to get me?"

"A flame thrower for when J'onn finds out."

**II. Marilyn Munster**

The problem, Lex mused, with having three homes he operated out of was that he never knew where anything was. Clark kept the farm because of course he would and Lex didn't mind that. Parts of it were good, reminded him of that time he'd been kicked out because of Lucas Dunleavy and almost felt like brothers. Most of the time, he could forget the terrible things, like everything with Lana and their busted up engagement party or Jonathan's million withering looks. Most days he was even able to keep his sanity and remind himself that hadn't quite happened to him anyway.

Still, there was the farm that usually ended up for weekends and the mansion that Chloe tended to gravitate to because it was big enough to accommodate three children and Conner's pop-ins on short notice. The penthouse, though, was smart. When he had long hours at LuthorCorp or just wanted to keep a closer eye on his oldest a few floors down-yes he was not above spying on his children, Clark and Chloe didn't object so it must be morally fine-then that was best.

Now, however, he couldn't remember which of the damn three places he'd lost his cellphone in. He'd scoured his office and penthouse and was about to race over to the farm to see if it had gotten over there, but was making a final round of the mansion first. He entered into the library and frowned. It was a school night and the younger kids were supposed to be with Chloe and Clark on the farm (there was a calendar, Chloe had color coded it). So why Jonathan was sitting cross-legged by the fire pouring over Nietzsche was beyond him.

"Ahem," Lex coughed, and waited less than patiently for his kid to notice.

A head darted up so fast and large green eyes were staring back at him. Jonathan was as discreet as Clark had ever been, and, at fifteen really should know better. Clark barely knew how to keep things hidden, even now, but he and Chloe would have to work more closely with the boy. Clearly, startling into superspeed at Smallville High would never do.

"Uncle Lex! I...don't tell Mom and Dad."

He rolled his eyes and strode toward him. "You're not actually going to try that line with me, are you? You know you don't just speed anywhere you want because you can, and since Clark and Chloe always tell me if you're coming over."

Jonathan sighed and set his book down. No, correction, Lex's book down. "I just needed some air. The girls kind of tag team. I just wanted a few normal hours."

Lex quirked his head at the boy and sat next to him on the sofa. "Do tell. I was just on my way over anyway. I lost my cell there last night probably and, nevermind...now what is my darling angel, Moira doing over there? As a Luthor she is obligated to be at least fifteen percent evil at all times. It's genetic."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and jutted his chin out in a gesture that was pure Sullivan. "No one believes that. LuthorCorp beats out even Wayne Industries most years in charitable donations. I bet you drive everyone there nuts."

"Conner backs me up at board meetings."

"Duh, he would. He's family."

Lex smiled at that. "Aren't we all. Seriously, what could Lily and Moira be up to that is that evil? Six and four are tough ages, and I never said that they weren't."

"Racing."

Lex beamed at that, Moira had just gotten her speed about six months ago. His daughter was terrible at stopping but she was sure to give even Bart Allen, annoyance that he was a run for his money when it was time. "Moira is winning, I hope. Luthors don't lose."

Jonathan sighed. "She's still four. It's okay to lose."

"Your father would say that. What does Chloe say? Or Aunt Lois?"

"Losing means you didn't try hard enough if you're mom. Aunt Lois says things I can't repeat or they take away my Xbox."

Lex nodded and pressed his lips together, trying to ignore the throb of his temples. Lois's one constant trait, no matter what career (currently it was cake decorating and he had no idea where the fuck that had come from) she was pursuing or man she was after (a friend from the base years ago, a normal person after too many heroes or so Chloe'd said), Lois was always able to say the dumbest, most inappropriate thing in any situation. After a year abroad with the Flying Graysons as an addition, something about loving an excuse to wear that little spandex in public, she'd stopped by the farm unannounced, caught Lex nursing Moira, and said enough insulting things to both him and Clark to get her kicked off the farm for a year.

God, maybe it was the mutant thing. It could be residuals from Brainiac's experiments. Hell, maybe the universe just hated him and loved throwing him curveballs. There was the possibility Darkseid had brought him back like this for laughs. Or, and this was Lex's favorite theory, Clark was just extremely fertile and The Fortress had never been as literal about world conquest as they'd all feared. Nope, Clark was just going to repopulate with him and Chloe as near-immortal brood mares at his side. Seriously, they needed to slow things down. Four was too complicated already.

"Anyway," Jonathan added. "Aunt Lois would say that if you win, you're out of the family."

"God, the General and my father and Jor-El all would have made quite an axis of evil." Lex said, noting that Nietzsche wasn't the only philosopher that Jonathan was skimming. That made him proud. Technically Jonathan wasn't his, just like Moira wasn't Chloe's, but they all shared alike. Clark had always favored pop psych and things beneath his reading level, even way back then. Lex was proud his son, so to speak, was already pouring through Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Rilke. "So let me see:

It is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical will live the relation to another as something alive."

Lex smirked back at Jonathan and handed him the book. "Ah so that's it. The noise of girls speeding into walls. I know that's literal, the bill last time Moira wiped out was sent to me. And a girl."

Jonathan even blushed like his father. It was far too easy. "I didn't say there was a girl."

"You're alone, reading a philosopher famous for their take on love and relationships, and pouting. I know that expression anywhere, Kent. So, I repeat, what's her name?"

God, it could almost be twenty years ago, couldn't it?

"Rebeccca and she's the captain of the volleyball team. She's so pretty, Uncle Lex. You wouldn't even...she's almost as tall as I am and everybody likes her."

Lex shook his head. Oh they were on that path again. Well, it took Clark, what? About nine years to gateway drug onto Lois and another three to Chloe. Oh God, Lex might be invulnerable to a broad extent but he wasn't ready for another round on that roller coaster. Why did Kent boys seem so desperate for normal? Clark wasn't ever that happy with it (and Lane barely counted). Conner had common sense at least. Megan was a fine girl.

Talented.

"And you're going to ask her to Homecoming, I assume."

"I wanted to, but she has a boyfriend. He's-"

"No, I know how this script goes. The quarterback?"

"Actually Varsity basketball co-captain."

"Of course he is. Well, then I suppose moping isn't going to make him disappear. Do you want to know what a Luthor would do, a Sullivan or a Kent?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "You'd find a way for incriminating pictures to be found, whether he was doing the cheerleading team all at once or not. Mom would just wait for about a decade and be super nice to her crush-that's not the best plan."

"You and Lily say otherwise."

"...and Dad would be beyond hopeless and get strung up in a field."

Lex shuddered, thinking about one of the scariest times of his life. He hadn't known at the time that Clark had abilities, hadn't even begun to suspect, but he was sure when he found the boy just as he had Jeremy Creek years before that Clark was going to freeze to death in front of him.

"Not funny."

"Nothing hurts Dad."

"Well there's Darkseid and Doomsday and Kryptonite. Don't take Clark for granted just because it's hard to hurt him, doesn't mean he can't still be hurt. It's one down from your mother."

Jonathan's expression closed off and he started to stand. Lex knew that motion well too.

"Don't speed off on me, young man. It's rude, just because your mother and I can't-"

"I don't want to talk powers and alien stuff, okay? I wanted to have some time to think of how to get Rebecca to notice me without sonic booms and load bearing walls cracking."

Lex swore. "Damn it. I don't care if I'm rich. The whole principle of the thing is unfair and biased. Next time a wall gets broken, Chloe and Clark can cover it communally. They'll be better at keeping the girls in line if it comes out of their pockets."

"That's fair. I just...you asked why I'm here? I've read that whole 'ubermensch' thing and I have a photographic memory. The Rilke stuff's my favorite too. I just come here when it's empty sometimes to think. I get tired of the chaos. It's normal here."

Lex laughed. It was the funniest thought he'd ever heard. This was the castle Lionel had stolen and moved to Kansas brick by brick, where every mutant in Smallville had broken in at some point in time, where his father had exiled his freak son out of his way. Luthor Mansion was far from normal and the people who stayed in it, less normal still.

"What?"

He reached out and grabbed his ersatz son's forearm. It was nice that Jonathan still humored him. Eventually, he'd get sped off on again, as he had with Clark or even when Conner got in a snit. "I'm going to cut to the chase for you, since I know for a fact things about you I never did this early on for Clark. You're not normal, embrace that. Find a human or a meta or an alien, whoever, who will get that with you and be happy. If you're going to have an actual relationship, of course you can't tell anyone yet, but give yourself a chance with someone who might get it when it's time."

"So I should date someone like your or mom? A mutant?"

"No, there are humans who've done mostly fine with people like us. I'm merely saying, son, that you'll save yourself so much hurt in the interim."

"I want to be like everyone else."

"Then I have nothing to offer you. I have more money than God and your parents work with actual wizards and there's nothing we can do or get that will make you normal or the rest of us. Jonathan, just accept it and move on. Clark would have been better for doing it so much faster; we all might have been."

"I'm tired," he said, his shoulders sagging. "Uncle Lex, can you just drive me home. I'll help you Xray for your cell, okay?"

"Then consider this tabled until later. I...just listen to us...we already lived the hard parts."

"I doubt that," Jonathan said and Lex had not missed men with that name and their stubborness, not at all.

**III. The Craft**

Chloe frowned down at the collection of books on Lily's bed. Half the titles were in languages she'd never seen, and that was saying a lot, considering her travels and the things she'd learned from cultural exchanges with Diana and Zatanna. The others were labeled in mainly Latin and German and were titles that no one had business touching. Alright, maybe Mordred or Anna Fortune, but not her daughter, not a girl whose only actual weakness was magic.

"Mom!" Lily yipped coming to a screeching stop in the middle of the room. Her papers flew everywhere.

Chloe shook her head. "You do know that you're cleaning all of this up, right? If you don't want to be on pick-up detail then rush more carefully. Your father is the worst at that."

"Mom, what are you doing in here?" Lily demanded, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Chloe refrained from rolling her eyes. She was in her forties, and she was far too old to revert to the same attitude staples her own daughters relied on. Still, why her daughter dyed her hair that shade of electric blue, she'd never know, although, Chloe did wonder if Lex had had hair back then if he'd have thought to go through a rainbow clavacade to piss of Lionel.

No, scratch that. He would have.

"Actually, Lillian Jane, this is our house and I clean in here once in a while," she said, gesturing to a pile of laundry half way up to her hips. "Someone should."

"But it's my room! I need some privacy."

Chloe eyed her coolly and picked up the nearest grimoire for her daughter to see. "Are you insane? I'm not even sure you understand the ramifications of this. You do not mess with magic."

"Isn't that the reason you and dad and well Lex are all together anyway? It all snowballed from Aunt Zatanna's spell to start. Hell, without magic Jonathan wouldn't even exist."

"Magic takes people's free will. Just because it worked out for your father and me then, doesn't mean magic can often be abused just to take. Zatanna's been on probation more than once for that. Besides, it's dangerous. Thanks to me, you don't have to worry about Kryptonite, not like Conner does or Moira. Why would you mess with the only thing that can kill you?"

"It's not like I'm stupid. I'm not some human who just thought rolling mercury around in her hands would be cool. I have a teacher and Ra...nevermind."

Chloe shook her head. "I wasn't interested in letting you be a Titan until you graduated high school, just like Conner. I...Jonathan never had any interest in what we do, and I wanted you, when you started begging, to focus on academics. Lex vouched for you. Your dad said it would be a good outlet for your abilities and Lex said you were mature enough to handle it." She tossed a thinner volume at Lily, who caught it with preternatural ease. "Your fathers were wrong."

"Mom...I...is this about, uh, Raven and me?"

Chloe sat down on the bed. Oh her daughter had such a genius for misunderstanding her. "No, not like that. Obviously, your fathers and I have an interesting arrangement. Let's put it this way, if my father were still in the picture, he'd frown on it. That I don't care about. I'm not even that surprised. I'm just upset Raven got you into the Dark Arts. It's not for you. It could kill you."

Lily glared down at her mother, and her eyes flashed red. It would have been intimidating if her pout, like Clark's before her, didn't mostly make her look constipated. "So could Doomsday, maybe. I don't know. It's interesting, Mom. I like learning things. How can you harsh me for that. It's so intriguing and then I can...so much more power."

Chloe flinched. She'd felt that way once about Watchtower; look how wrong she'd been. "Why would you want to know more? You have more than enough."

"But this is...it's more control. I need that. Nothing around here ever is. Dad or you or both are always gone on a mission, and Moira and I accept that. If you're doing League stuff then Lex is great at filling in. Hell, he's way stricter than Dad! Never a pushover. It's just if I can control more, then I don't have to be scared like when Granny Goodness tried to brainwash Dad into being a new prophet or when Brainiac almost murdered you or when you both were lost in another dimension until Aunt Tess and Oracle found you or-"

Chloe swallowed, hard. Clark probably never would have had children unless dragged into it, not really. Conner and Jonathan just sort of got thrown into the mix without anyone's consent, and then Lily was a surprise. A wonderful one, sure. Still, Clark lamented more than once that he wasn't always around enough, that the kids couldn't help but be dragged into life and death scares so young because it was part of being League. She'd always said it wouldn't matter, that they'd weather it well.

Chloe wasn't sure of that anymore.

"You don't need to do that. Clark, Lex and I have been a team for a long time now. Your dad and me for so long that you'd seem way old compared to us when we started down this adventure. We always come back. It's what we do."

Lily's eyes flickered back to green. "But I want you safe. I can help. I can do more and Raven can teach me."

"Raven isn't even going to speak to Superman or Fawkes. I'll have Lex sit her down and explain to her how this wasn't her place to meddle. You can see her, sure, but she can't teach you magic. I won't allow it."

"That's not fair!"

And Chloe found herself diving under the bed to grab the fire extinguisher. Conner, Jonathan, and now Lily all had ones in their room. Hell, they kept one in their for Clark but that was a different story. Right now, it was a brilliant idea because, in her anger, her daughter had set the curtains on fire.

"It is fair!" Chloe shouted as she doused everything with the foam of the extinguisher. "Honey, I know. You can't control everything. Hell, you can't really control anything. Lex and I have tried that and it always backfires."

"You can't stop me, not really. Even Dad can't watch me 24/7-"

"Oh, I bet Lex can get a tracker made and-" Chloe stopped. It was too easy to be Big Sister, to fall into that line of thinking again. "Honey, just don't ruin yourself. It's black magic for a reason and it's cleary eaten some into Raven already. All of this?" she said, spinning around and gesturing toward the tomes on the bed. "It has a price."

"Then I want to pay it so you don't have to."

And with nothing more than a fierce wind, Lily was gone.

**IV. Calculations**

"We need to talk," Lex said, climbing down the stairs to the mansion's wine cellar.

Thanks to all of their metabolisms, wine couldn't do a thing for them. Considering Chloe had bad memories of getting locked down here and Alexander had held him here as well, Lex hadn't taken much convincing to set up a lab for Moira. She'd begged so earnestly by the time she was eleven for the set up. It had been hard to refuse.

Literally.

Moira also needed little sleep and had Clark's inability to sing. Five hundred verses into "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and even Clark was agreeing to it.

His little one, well, she wasn't little anymore, not at seventeen. Anyway, his daughter, the one who'd given him the damn stretch marks and heaps of extra humiliation, was staring up at him through her goggles. Sharp blue eyes boring into his.

"Daddy, what did I do?"

Lex shook his head. He was too smart for that game. Clark, now he was another story, but Clark never could discipline anyone worth a damn. Any of the four kids-Conner included-gave Clark the big puppy dog eyes, and he folded on his resolve faster than he did his laundry.

"Put the beaker down, Moira Lyssandra. Now."

She frowned but set the glassware down as instructed. Piqued, she pulled off her goggles and let her hair fall out of its bun. The red waves were striking on her. They'd always looked stupid on him, that clown hair as he'd thought of it before he lost it in the shower. This was different and Moira was grown, and he and Clark and Chloe were soon going to have to beat every person with eyeballs off of her.

God help them all.

"What Daddy? What exactly did I do?"

"You and Lily have been experimenting on yourselves."

"Have not."

"Moira, don't lie. You have your father's talent for it, not mine. More's the pity."

She flipped a red lock back out of her face. "Fine, it's nothing huge. It's a few samples here or there. Besides, I found where you were keeping some of the blue and black Kryptonite and it was interesting to see the side effects."

"Are you serious? You know you're not to play with things like that. I don't know what you've been doing with your sister's samples but how stupid are you to subject yourself to radiation that can hurt you?"

"Blue just moots and I only use the black on skin cells, just enough to see a split. It's not like I'm all the The Suite Life of Zach and Cody."

"Huh?"

"Right, old person. I'm not a twin or a triplet all of a sudden. I just was curious."

Lex sighed and ran a hand over his head. "And that's noble but not about yourself, not like this. If you want to know more, I'll let you see Conner's records or help run things with you, but I draw the line at you stealing Kryptonite from me and playing with it."

"I wasn't. I was curious."

"That's not an excuse, believe me."

She snorted. "Like you've ever gone too far."

Lex laughed long and loud because it was too funny not to. "Maybe your other parents and I hid too much for too long."

"I don't understand."

"I did...or I mostly did...it's complicated, but I did a lot of things because I was curious, for 'research.' Accidents happen, people get hurt, lines are crossed. You treat 'research' cavalierly and you'll live to regret it."

"I don't-"

"Your mother and father and I will sit you, Jonathan and Lily down with a powerpoint. It's too convoluted to explain any other way. You'd not be the first Luthor to become too obsessed, and you won't be the last, I'm afraid. Tess has had her own windmills to tilt, even before she was virtual."

"I don't understand that either. I roll with everything, Daddy, because mutants and aliens and virtual reality aunts, oh my, but I feel like I'm missing so much, that there are holes everywhere."

He nodded and reached out to cup her chin. Moira really was their best behaved. Conner was a schemer, Jonathan too obsessed with being normal. Christ, how many Lana-wannabes had he dragged home by now? Lily was still working her way through Grimoires no matter how often he'd yelled at Raven or conned Bruce into having her sent off world. Mostly, Moira was the quiet, reflective one. The girl he could rely on in a pinch.

She wasn't supposed to take after him.

Anyone else but him.

"I know, and we wanted you all to have as normal a life as possible without seeing our darker sides."

Moira chuckled and, for just a minute, it reminded him of his mother, well, before she'd become infanticidal. "Right. You're Hannibal Lector, and Mom's Stalin and Dad's Darth Vader. It's all makes huge sense, right?"

"Sometimes the League's cut corners it shouldn't have, and I've done more than I can ever atone for. My point is, I know where it starts. I'll help you learn more about your powers, especially the things you get from me, but on my terms and my supervision."

"Will I get better microscopes?"

"Harvard med and NIH envy what you have now."

Moira shook her head and pulled some tattered, folded papers from her pocket, "But I have these modifications. I know it's tricky but it's based on how I suspect Dad's eyes work we could make great advancements in the whole thing. The patent revenue alone-"

"You don't have to bulldoze me. I understand. Just do things more safely. I need someone stable around here, Moira, and you're our closest to that. Maybe we just got better as parents."

She nodded and reached up and hugged him. He held her tight, flesh of his flesh and all that. "I didn't mean to disappoint you."

Pulling away, he smiled. "You didn't. You scared me, there's a difference. Besides, clearly I'm the better mastermind. I did figure you two out."

"What gave me away?"

"You asked Jonathan for samples. Always know your marks, honey. He's a squealer, that one."

**V. Intervention**

"Cynthia, we need to talk."

Tess watched, if that was exactly the word for it, as her niece paced the holding cell alongside the Watchtower's bridge. She was the tough love, the first volley and sign that her brother, Clark and Chloe were serious about Cynthia cleaning up her damn act. Tess wasn't sure Clark knocking her niece out and dragging her here was going to work, but when even Chloe and Lex combined were out of ideas, things were getting desperate. These were people who out thought alien invaders for fun.

Her niece stopped pacing and sat on the bed. Reaching down, she slipped of her stilettos and placed a blanket over her lap. That was a relief. Her niece wore everything too short and too damn tight.

"You know, Mom and Dad and Clark didn't have to go through all this. I will find a way out."

Tess materialized as a hologram, feeling the need to answer her niece with her own eyerolls and affected sighs. It wasn't like Cynthia was the only ice-hearted Luthor bitch in the Tower tonight. Okay, in Tess's case, every night.

"Really?" she asked, affecting the pose of her hands on her hips. "You're not Kryptonian. You have none of the strength and, even if you did, this is all metal from six galaxies over courtesy of the Lantern corp. Your siblings can't even get out._ Clark _couldn't during a bad Red K accident either. We tested."

"You think someone part Chloe and part Lex can't figure out an escape plan withint seventy-hours. I think so," she replied, crossingher arms over her chest. "You're wasting your time. Not that you don't have tons and nothing better to do. I guess you need something to break up the Watchtower boredom."

Tess narrowed her projected eyes. "I've been played by your father and your grandfather before, among others. I'm not rising to the bait. I've been the ghost in the watchtower machine for almost forty years. I've adjusted. You're not getting out by picking at that point. You can do better."

"Alright, Aunt Tess. Then I can start working on hacking my way out or maybe go Maguyver with some chemicals from my purse. You'd be amazed what some hair spray and nail polish remover could do."

"That, I can understand. I was at this PETA rally once and we made flash bombs and, never mind. That's not the point of this story."

"So what's the point of lockdown? This is nuts! So I club a lot at _Atlantis_, so what?"

"It's a place to start," she replied, starting to pace. Amazing how certain habits, even if unecessary kept neurons and circuitry and God knew what else running. "You're out to four or five in the morning drinking every damn night. You're being sloppy with your abilities, showing off your light show in public! Don't even get me started on what you got Moira and Lily mixed up in."

The self-satisfied smirk fell off of Cynthia's face. Progress.

"Nothing happened."

"So the three of you weren't abducted by the D.D.S. and held for a week. We all know that extended 'spring break' before your finals at Met U was bullshit. It's just a miracle you have Lily and Mori wrapped around your finger so badly that they agreed to lie to cover your ass."

"Did you spy on me? Satellites from Watchtower everywhere? Can't escape that eye in the sky?"

Cynthia shook her head and balled her hands into fists at her side. They weren't glowing yet. That gave Tess more time to work. Cold grey eyes bore into her and something about that reminded her of Lionel and scared her forward.

"Cyn, you think your mother can't check Met U records and scale their firewalls in a single bound? Hell, do you think that your dad didn't pay the security people off for their tapes of the night your were taken?"

Her niece raked a hand through her spikey bleached pixie cut. "So does Clark do things too? Maybe flyovers?"

"Clark is angry but he doesn't believe in spying on any of you. He believes in trust. Your other parents aren't quite as generous when you get the government involved," Tess countered. "You go around, showing off your powers, giving off 'fireworks' and light shows to get men and women to follow you home from clubs. Hell, sometimes use its reverse to blow holes through things and trounce bar fights. It's Metropolis, but you're noticeable even there. You don't have any right to drag the other girls into it."

"You're not staying that calm, Aunt Tess. We're fine. You have three Sullivan-Kent-Luthors who kick ass on a regular basis for the League."

"No, correction. _Mori _and _Lily_ contribute. You club."

"No one beats Jonathan up for not being a superhero."

"But he's not a disappointment."

Cynthia worked her jaw a bit, and Tess notice the glow build from rose to gold. Maybe they were getting somewhere. "Well aren't all Luthors black sheep? You stomped a man to death _and _stole Dad's mind for a decade. Not that I can say Lionel or either Lex did much better. If my biggest crime in clubbing too hard and sometimes getting into a few skirmishes-"

"The government can't have any of you. They tried very hard with Clark, once, and it cannot happen."

"Well, I'm not Clark's am I? I'm not like the others. Cynthia the accident."

"I think all of you sort of just came along at your own pace. I promise you Lex did _not _see Moira coming." Despite everything, Tess's lips quirked or she made them, same difference at this point what she chose to project. "God, I wish you'd been there to see that. It was pretty damn funny."

"I'm sure. Everyone else...I don't know," she said, staring down at her hands that were glowing brightly enough that if Tess still actually had eyes she'd be squinting against the intensity of the glare. "They know what they are and what they're capable of. Hell, Jonathan and Lily are just Kryptonite resistant. They can't heal like Mom does. I could raise my horse from the dead at six. I don't even know what everything else is or how it works. Dad's not even sure and when does that even happen?"

"So drinking is going to fix it?"

"Well at least things lined up right in some way."

Tess mimicked a sigh and paced again. "You're better than this, kiddo, and maybe the reason even Chloe and Lex can't fix you is because they're too close. Clark's a pushover, made of marshmallow for all of you but even your mom and dad can't see all the pain you're in."

"So you get it? I kind of doubt it."

"I get pain. I've had it a dozen times over from foster parents or the orphanage...Lex 1.0. I know what it's like to be something that's never technically existed before. I mean, we're not that different."

Cynthia snorted. "You don't even breathe."

"No, I guess I don't, but I can't really die. You keep the Watcthower running-and Batman's very invested in that by the way-and I could be here in a thousand years. That's why you're so worried, really, your siblings, they have limits. You don't."

"I don't need limits," she said, surging up and the glow was so bright that Tess wondered if she were still human, still had a body, if she'd feel heat pouring off of her niece as well. "Let me out, Aunt Tess, or I'll tear this place apart."

"Try me," she countered, fading back into the tower itself. "I'm stronger than you think."

The hole her niece blew through the wall said otherwise.


End file.
